A disappointment
Mar. 18th, 2018 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: The Sultan's Organ, by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
There's all manner of books in the work book sale, and you never know what's going to turn up. It's an opportunity for making serendipitous discoveries, and I hoped this book would fit into that category. Unfortunately it doesn't. The book revolves around the machinations of the Elizabethan court and their dealings with the Ottomans (both for trade and in an attempt to gain allies and advantage over the French and Spanish), resulting in a process of gift-giving, and in particular the voyage of Thomas Dallam and others in 1599 to present an organ to the new Sultan Mehmed III. There are some interesting illustrations, both of London and of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, but overall Gathorne-Hardy's work is just rather dry; it's clear that he has an interest in his subject, but he hasn't made it come alive for me.
There's all manner of books in the work book sale, and you never know what's going to turn up. It's an opportunity for making serendipitous discoveries, and I hoped this book would fit into that category. Unfortunately it doesn't. The book revolves around the machinations of the Elizabethan court and their dealings with the Ottomans (both for trade and in an attempt to gain allies and advantage over the French and Spanish), resulting in a process of gift-giving, and in particular the voyage of Thomas Dallam and others in 1599 to present an organ to the new Sultan Mehmed III. There are some interesting illustrations, both of London and of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, but overall Gathorne-Hardy's work is just rather dry; it's clear that he has an interest in his subject, but he hasn't made it come alive for me.